Bozell Column: ABC Hates Budget 'Chain Saws'
When President Obama's budget came out in February, with the greatest
expansion of federal spending in American history, some sycophantic
media outlets like The Washington Post ridiculously tried to sell the
concept that Obama was pushing "deep cuts." It was a publicity line that
collapsed on itself within 24 hours.
The Democrats are doing nothing to rein in the spending that is leading
America into bankruptcy. What the Republican leadership is proposing,
with its minuscule cuts, is a small fraction of a huge deficit.
Freshman Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is about the only one proposing
significant cuts, and for that he will be massacred, if the media have
their way. On the February 23 broadcast of ABC's "Nightline," they
actually cartooned him as a crazed maniac with a chain saw. It was
presented as "news," but it had all the markings of a negative ad cooked
up in the video lab at the DNC.
Over this over-the-top animation, ABC's Bill Weir spun like a top: "So,
while the President argues for a budget scalpel [Obama looking
reasonable, holding a scalpel], Rand Paul would use a chainsaw, shutting
down the Departments of Energy and Education. He would kill the
Consumer Product Safety Commission, shrink the Pentagon, and cut off all
foreign aid."'
When Obama's budget arrived, ABC's own reporter Jake Tapper calmly
noted the Obama budget blueprint proposed adding a whopping $7 trillion
to the national debt over ten years. But his colleague Bill Weir
apparently missed that company memo. He still thinks adding $7 trillion
to the debt constitutes a "cut."
Sen. Paul has proposed $500 billion in cuts. That is less than a third
of the projected deficit. To the leftist media, this constitutes taking
out a chain saw. To the objective observer, it constitutes a start.
Maybe ABC just likes hyperbole. So, when Obama went on a massive
"stimulus"-enhanced spending spree, did ABC offer us cartoon graphics of
a crazed Obama maniacally burning down a bonfire of tax dollars?
ABC is trashing Sen. Paul for addressing what anyone who's looked at a
national debt graph can see: you can't put a dent in the deficit with
microscopic cuts like $61 billion in a $3.7 trillion budget. We're
staring at a projected
Whether one likes Paul's list of cuts or not, the fact remains that we
are still left with a wholly irresponsible $1 trillion deficit. The
current House Republican proposal to spend $61 billion less in
non-security spending than Fiscal Year 2010 is still a spending level
many billions of dollars higher than Fiscal Year 2008 - when
conservatives were beyond dismayed at Bush-era overspending.
What the media wants is a massive budget battle not between the
Republicans and the Democrats, but between the GOP and the media
themselves. For them, it's 1995 again, with another opportunity to
derail the conservative agenda with a scorched-earth attack, allowing
the Obama agenda to prevail.
And truth doesn't matter.
Pompous network stars, who can find a "victim" for any potential
spending cut liberals oppose, will make any insufficient budget-cut
proposals sound extreme. "Nightline" host Terry Moran gave us a taste of
that with his introduction of Rand Paul: "Up next: Even the most
conservative Republicans balk at his proposals for slashing government.
We sit down with the newly minted Senator, Rand Paul."
But "even the most conservative Republicans" know that $61 billion in
budget cuts is a mere first-quarter play in opposing the Obama spending
juggernaut. Moran also demonized Paul with this promo: "Senator No
Surrender. He's the most controversial newcomer to Capitol Hill with a
radical pedigree. But can Rand Paul's high ideals survive the Senate?
We've got the 'Nightline' interview."
Did Terry Moran ever present Barack Obama as a "controversial newcomer"
with a "radical pedigree," given he had the most left-wing voting
record in the Senate? No. Instead, Moran fawned over Obama repeatedly on
the campaign trail about how he was an "American political
phenomenon.".
Speaking of a "radical pedigree," within weeks of Obama's election,
Moran was demanding the president impose extreme measures for the
financial crisis - but in the opposite direction. This "reporter" openly
advocated socialism: "Why not just nationalize the banks?"
Welcome to Washington, Rand Paul. You'll only know you're doing the
right thing when ABC, CBS, and NBC come running at you with
cameras...and straitjackets.
